Wyndham Clark is an American golfer from Denver, Colorado, ranked approximately world number 19, and the 2023 U.S. Open champion at Los Angeles Country Club.
LACC’s 18th hole on Sunday June 18, 2023 is the kind of moment that reveals character. Clark stood on the tee leading by one over Rory McIlroy, the most accomplished closer of his generation, in front of 40,000 people who had come expecting McIlroy to finally win his fifth major. Clark hit a 3-wood down the left side of the fairway, found the green with his approach, and two-putted from thirty feet while McIlroy watched his birdie putt lip out. The winning margin was one shot. Clark closed with a even-par 70. He was 29 years old. He had never won a major. He did not look like someone who knew that.
The composure on 18 was not an accident: it was the product of a game that had been sharpening for three years. Clark generates clubhead speed that puts him among the longest drivers in the field at any tournament he enters. His approach play is streaky, capable of brilliant precision across twelve holes and then one loose iron that costs a shot and a half. At LACC, the USGA narrowed the fairways to penalise exactly this kind of aggression. Clark’s answer was to find the fairway when it mattered and trust his putting on greens that had been running at 13 on the Stimpmeter all week. He made three birdies on the back nine with McIlroy hunting him. That is what winning looks like when you’re doing it for the first time.
Watching Clark play is to understand what peak confidence does to a golfer’s body language. He addresses the ball with a deliberate stillness that compresses into a genuinely violent swing. The trajectory is high and penetrating. When he misses, it tends to be long rather than short, right rather than left, which is the preferred miss on most PGA Tour setups. When he is going low, the round announces itself early: he birdie-birdie-eagles himself into contention before the leaderboard even catches up.
In 2026, Clark’s length is an asset at Augusta National, where the par 5s reward power that can reach the green in two from positions that force others to lay up. Aronimink’s Ross greens will test his iron consistency. Shinnecock Hills will test whether his U.S. Open experience gives him an edge on a setup that has broken stronger field-average strikers. He has already survived it once. He will compete at all four: The Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and The Open Championship. Check broadcast times in United States time.